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A surge of more than 5 per cent in business across the UK during the spring
might look like marking an end to the recession in construction, but the
latest figures from the builders’ merchant Wolseley more accurately reflect
its decision to diversify.

Wolseley, which trades in Britain as Plumb Center and Pipe Center, has
branched out into civil engineering and supplying homewares direct to
households online. It reported its strongest quarter for a couple of years —
£24 million of profits on revenues of £467 million — boosted by the
acquisitions of Burdens, a distressed drainage business it bought on the